Prospect Info: 156th overall: Vancouver selects Arturs Silovs (Goalie, Latvia ---> Barrie Colts)

[tyhee]

Silovs is still young, but he's hardly lacking in big-game playoff experience. He's been the playoff starter for two consecutive years in the AHL with Abbotsford.

...

?? I didn't think this was right so looked on eliteprospects.com and hockeydb.com which both show Silovs playing a total of 2 AHL playoff games, both in 2023. According to eliteprospects.com he played 2 games, one win and one loss, with a 2.85 GAA and .914 save %. Are they missing something?

Any confidence in Silovs from big games, prior to his last two games with the Canucks, seems to me to be based on his WC run last spring.

 

[VanJack]

Building an NHL roster in the salary cap world, that can potentially compete for Cup, always involves a lot of hard choices and compromises.

In a perfect world, the Canucks would be able to re-sign all of their impending UFA's, re-sign Hronek, who's an RFA, and retain Demko as their No. 1 goalie earning $5M a season. But as we all know, this just isn't possible.

Would the Canucks goaltending potentially drop off a bit if Demko was dealt and the starts were more evenly split between Silovs and a backup like DeSmith? Obviously it would.

But if by trading Demko, you can land the same bounty that the Canucks reaped from the Islanders in the trade for Bo Horvat, then you have to give it serious consideration, don't you? Canucks still need help up and down their roster; and they're particularly lacking in A-level prospects, given all their trades of first and second rounders.

In the cap world, it's all about plugging the most egregious holes in your roster. And if Demko could potentially help them address this, then Allvin has to be open to the possibilities.

 

[RobertKron]

Building an NHL roster in the salary cap world, that can potentially compete for Cup, always involves a lot of hard choices and compromises.

In a perfect world, the Canucks would be able to re-sign all of their impending UFA's, re-sign Hronek, who's an RFA, and retain Demko as their No. 1 goalie earning $5M a season. But as we all know, this just isn't possible.

Would the Canucks goaltending potentially drop off a bit if Demko was dealt and the starts were more evenly split between Silovs and a backup like DeSmith? Obviously it would.

But if by trading Demko, you can land the same bounty that the Canucks reaped from the Islanders in the trade for Bo Horvat, then you have to give it serious consideration, don't you? Canucks still need help up and down their roster; and they're particularly lacking in A-level prospects, given all their trades of first and second rounders.

In the cap world, it's all about plugging the most egregious holes in your roster. And if Demko could potentially help them address this, then Allvin has to be open to the possibilities.

Is this like toward the beginning of last season when you suggested the Canucks trade Demko and run with Martin and Delia in goal?

 

[mossey3535]

Why are people just thanking Ian Clark and no love to Marko Torenius?

I think Marko is a bit more flexible than Clark and I like a lot of his ideas much better.

 

[mossey3535]

Silovs is pretty calm, this was clear from watching him in the AHL. He's prone neither to panicking nor to hanging his head and giving up if things aren't going well. But he's still got some holes in his play that need to be fixed before he can be a #2. Any call-up can look okay for a short time but the long haul is a totally different story. DeSmith is a proven, competent #2 and if he's ready to play tomorrow he should get the start.

I actually disagree a lot with this assessment. His major weakness is that he tries too hard to "make saves". He often prematurely goes into a save selection. He's also not inherently gifted at puck tracking like Demko is, although his hands are reasonably quick. I think he freelances very well and is quite athletic which was in his draft profile and something Clark talked about at the time. But he also creates his own situations where he needs to make those saves because he commits too early.

Marko encourages "react from your feet" which has helped him not try to go after the puck as much and I think it has made him look better. But that hasn't had an effect on his AHL stats, which to me is concerning.

He's also very passive behind screens which is a major issue right now. I mentioned that there was a sequence after he made a good poke check in the game where there was extended time in our zone and there were a lot of Preds in front of the net. I don't think he saw a single puck of the 3-4 shot attempts they had afterwards. Demko sometimes fails to fight through a screen, but not 3-4 shots in a row. This is a part of Silov's inexperience, he'd have to spend more time at this level to learn to be more aggressive on screens.

It's little things like this that go against the "he looks so calm" compliment that I hear so often. Saros has been oversliding a lot lately so he doesn't "look calm" but I would take his game over Artur's last night.

So mentally I'm ok with calling him calm because from his words he seems confident and collected, but from a technical standpoint he isn't and has worked on this.

 

[Nucker101]

I actually disagree a lot with this assessment. His major weakness is that he tries too hard to "make saves". He often prematurely goes into a save selection. He's also not inherently gifted at puck tracking like Demko is, although his hands are reasonably quick. I think he freelances very well and is quite athletic which was in his draft profile and something Clark talked about at the time. But he also creates his own situations where he needs to make those saves because he commits too early.

Marko encourages "react from your feet" which has helped him not try to go after the puck as much and I think it has made him look better. But that hasn't had an effect on his AHL stats, which to me is concerning.

He's also very passive behind screens which is a major issue right now. I mentioned that there was a sequence after he made a good poke check in the game where there was extended time in our zone and there were a lot of Preds in front of the net. I don't think he saw a single puck of the 3-4 shot attempts they had afterwards. Demko sometimes fails to fight through a screen, but not 3-4 shots in a row. This is a part of Silov's inexperience, he'd have to spend more time at this level to learn to be more aggressive on screens.

It's little things like this that go against the "he looks so calm" compliment that I hear so often. Saros has been oversliding a lot lately so he doesn't "look calm" but I would take his game over Artur's last night.

So mentally I'm ok with calling him calm because from his words he seems confident and collected, but from a technical standpoint he isn't and has worked on this.

Would you roll with DeSmith or Silovs next game if it were up to you?

 

[VanJack]

I actually disagree a lot with this assessment. His major weakness is that he tries too hard to "make saves". He often prematurely goes into a save selection. He's also not inherently gifted at puck tracking like Demko is, although his hands are reasonably quick. I think he freelances very well and is quite athletic which was in his draft profile and something Clark talked about at the time. But he also creates his own situations where he needs to make those saves because he commits too early.

Marko encourages "react from your feet" which has helped him not try to go after the puck as much and I think it has made him look better. But that hasn't had an effect on his AHL stats, which to me is concerning.

He's also very passive behind screens which is a major issue right now. I mentioned that there was a sequence after he made a good poke check in the game where there was extended time in our zone and there were a lot of Preds in front of the net. I don't think he saw a single puck of the 3-4 shot attempts they had afterwards. Demko sometimes fails to fight through a screen, but not 3-4 shots in a row. This is a part of Silov's inexperience, he'd have to spend more time at this level to learn to be more aggressive on screens.

It's little things like this that go against the "he looks so calm" compliment that I hear so often. Saros has been oversliding a lot lately so he doesn't "look calm" but I would take his game over Artur's last night.

So mentally I'm ok with calling him calm because from his words he seems confident and collected, but from a technical standpoint he isn't and has worked on this.

Made it a point of watching the goalies in the Vegas-Dallas series.....more specifically Aiden Hill, Logan Thompson and Jake Oettinger.

I'm no goalie expert, but based on my viewing none of these guys is much better than Silovs imo. And Vegas are the defending Cup championship; and Dallas now might be the biggest threat to win it this year.

 

[mossey3535]

Would you roll with DeSmith or Silovs next game if it were up to you?

Depends on whether the Preds have picked up a read on Silovs or not. Desmith looks bad sometimes but if you look at the results between the two it's basically the same with Desmith a bit ahead. Fancy stats also has Desmith very slightly ahead (-0.2 GSAA for him vs -0.7 for Silovs).

Either of them should have a very short leash. And if the team plays like it should, it probably shouldn't matter which of them plays.

 

[Blue and Green]

I actually disagree a lot with this assessment. His major weakness is that he tries too hard to "make saves". He often prematurely goes into a save selection. He's also not inherently gifted at puck tracking like Demko is, although his hands are reasonably quick. I think he freelances very well and is quite athletic which was in his draft profile and something Clark talked about at the time. But he also creates his own situations where he needs to make those saves because he commits too early.

Marko encourages "react from your feet" which has helped him not try to go after the puck as much and I think it has made him look better. But that hasn't had an effect on his AHL stats, which to me is concerning.

He's also very passive behind screens which is a major issue right now. I mentioned that there was a sequence after he made a good poke check in the game where there was extended time in our zone and there were a lot of Preds in front of the net. I don't think he saw a single puck of the 3-4 shot attempts they had afterwards. Demko sometimes fails to fight through a screen, but not 3-4 shots in a row. This is a part of Silov's inexperience, he'd have to spend more time at this level to learn to be more aggressive on screens.

It's little things like this that go against the "he looks so calm" compliment that I hear so often. Saros has been oversliding a lot lately so he doesn't "look calm" but I would take his game over Artur's last night.

So mentally I'm ok with calling him calm because from his words he seems confident and collected, but from a technical standpoint he isn't and has worked on this.

I don't consider overcommitment to be the same as panic. The latter is an emotional state and in my experience it is as likely to result in hesitancy and freezing as it is to cause rushed commitment (which can happen for reasons unrelated to panic).

I think Silovs' ability to handle the emotional aspect is fine. I just don't think he's proven enough yet at the pure process of stopping pucks to be effectively handed the #2 position for next season. He has to earn it.

 

[VanJack]

The backup job might be Silovs by almost default next season. I suppose there's a chance to they go out and acquire another veteran backup goalie; or even bring DeSmith back. But not sure that's the best move with their cap situation.

The backup job is basically Silovs' to lose.

 

[StickShift]

Silovs has arrived. He is here in the NHL to stay.

 

[Spectrefire]

The backup job might be Silovs by almost default next season. I suppose there's a chance to they go out and acquire another veteran backup goalie; or even bring DeSmith back. But not sure that's the best move with their cap situation.

The backup job is basically Silovs' to lose.

I don't think there's any situation where Silovs is not the back-up goaltender next season.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

Not likely to see Abby again.

 

[ghostingtaro]

all hail our latvian overlord

 

[WTG]

Silovs shut out on Latvian Independence Day.

 

[TruKnyte]

I don't think there's any situation where Silovs is not the back-up goaltender next season.

Wouldn’t be upset if he was up here and played 30-35 games

 

[nucksflailtogether]

Amazing story. For a 156th overall pick he could hang them up today and that pick was a success. Should have a long career ahead of him which is great news considering Demko's health uncertainty.

 

[WTG]

Good morning lurking Latvians.
Yes, he was that good today.

 

[Flik]

He's aight

 

[SillyRabbit]

I can't get over how well he performed tonight and in the series overall.

So impressed and happy for him.

 

[VanJack]

Amazing story. For a 156th overall pick he could hang them up today and that pick was a success. Should have a long career ahead of him which is great news considering Demko's health uncertainty.

Silovs was a sixth round pick for a reason......when the Canucks drafted him, the only place he'd ever played was in the Latvian and Russian low-level junior leagues.

And in his draft-plus-one year he was loaned to the Barrie Colts, who were a bad OHL team. And his 3.87 GAA and .891 save percentage gave no hint of an NHL future. Then in his following two seasons he hardly played when COVID shut down most leagues around the World.

In 2021-22 and 2022-23 he was a hockey nomad playing just a handful of games each season. Among his stops, HS Riga and HS Mogo; and was even loaned to the Manitoba Moose for a game.

The next year it was almost as bad. He suited up for 10 games in Abbotsford and 10 games for the Trois Rivires Lions of the ECHL. And finished the season in Latvia.

There was almost nothing in his game to indicate that he'd ever be much more than a blip on the Canucks prospect radar screen.

But full marks to Ian Clark and Silovs' prodigious work-rate that he's where he is today.

 

[valkynax]

This kid has blown my mind. The poise, confidence, and composure I see in him, those are things that are not easy to teach.

Granted, his inexperience did show a few times, and the team still didn't look like they had as much faith in him as they did with Demko, but if this is where he starts, I cannot wait to see where he'll end up.

 

[Jack Burton]

Silovs be like

 

[F A N]

Silovs is an example of how drafting a player based on his performance in a short tournament can be a good idea. It was Silov’s U18 WC performance that first caught the Canucks’ attention and interest. Silovs’ big game performance has certainly continued since then.

Hope Silovs keeps it up.

 

[jd22]

Silovs is an example of how drafting a player based on his performance in a short tournament can be a good idea. It was Silov’s U18 WC performance that first caught the Canucks’ attention and interest. Silovs’ big game performance has certainly continued since then.

Hope Silovs keeps it up.

Benning? Is that you?